Silicon has played an important role in the fabrication of ink jet nozzles to be used in the ink jet printing technology (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,921,916 to Ernest Bassous and U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,464 to Ernest Bassous et al). However, because of corrosion and erosion tendencies of the electrostatic and magnetic inks, respectively, the lifetime of Si nozzles may not be adequate from a reliability standpoint. SiO.sub.2 has been employed as a protective coating, but fails to represent a complete solution to the problem. Other suggested solutions included the use of other types of thin coatings such as Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, metals, alloys and the like. One major problem with depositing the above-mentioned thin films is their susceptibility to imperfections. Additionally, the problems of adhesion and some mismatch differences also create a problem.
In the publication entitled "In Situ Formation of Ink Jet Nozzle Protective Coatings" to J. Aboaf et al, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 18, #2, July 1975 discloses a method for passivating silicon films. It is suggested that the silicon nozzle structure is to be oxidized and then subjected to chemical vapor deposition of an organic vapor such as methane, ethane or propane and the like. The process so described therein has proven to be inadequate and the films fail to exhibit the characteristics necessary to achieve passivation of nozzles i.e. high density, pin hole free, highly adherent, smooth, stress free and chemically inert.